pretty soon I'll be moving to a new location and therefore will have a whole new set of adventures to write about! stay tuned to find out where I'm headed next. :)
Wednesday, November 6
Brand New New Yorker on Location: Amsterdam
this city can be described in one word... awesome.
even though it was rainy, overcast, and cold almost the entire week I was there (I did get a few hours of sunshine), the city gave off such fun, positive energy that it really didn't even matter what the weather was. it's a bit like New York in that everyone is going along at their own pace and in their own little bubble, but it just gives off this aura of being nice. nice isn't exactly the first word I would use to describe the aura of NYC...
essentially, Amsterdam has charm that seems hard to replicate anywhere else. in terms of looks it reminds me a lot of Venice (lots of canals, bridges, etc.), but they are much more open about taboo subjects there (Red Light District anyone?) as I tend to think California is, and then yet it has this old city charm that reminds me of Paris.
the architecture there was amazing as well. not necessarily in terms of ornateness or grandiose size of the buildings, but more in the sense that it was architecture not really seen elsewhere. and since it is built basically on a lagoon some building are leaning, falling, resting on their neighborhoods that it definitely gives a visual to the idea of a "sinking city."
as far as what I "did" in the city... well it wasn't much. I went to a museum here, a museum there, but honestly I spent most of my time simply just walking. it was a nice, sort of leisure vacation (which is not usually, 100% my style). I didn't worry about waking up early to rush and pack all these things into my day (it helped matters a bit that I was there for a week). I woke up when I felt like it, slowly made my way to the train station to head into the city (I was staying with a friend in The Hague). and when I arrived I walked, stopping when I was hungry or wanted to inspect something further, and left for the day when my feet were finally tired. it was almost as if I was back in NYC, only in a different city (not sure if that makes sense to anyone but me...)
personally, one of the best parts of my trip was developing my photography "skills," so to speak. normally I just take pictures of things that catch my eye. but I tried to approach taking my "artistic" photos a little differently this time around. many famous artists do a series of work - one subject over and over again in either different perspectives, lighting, etc. - so I decided to try it too. I had so much fun with these photos that they may be some of my favorites of all of my photos.
even though it was rainy, overcast, and cold almost the entire week I was there (I did get a few hours of sunshine), the city gave off such fun, positive energy that it really didn't even matter what the weather was. it's a bit like New York in that everyone is going along at their own pace and in their own little bubble, but it just gives off this aura of being nice. nice isn't exactly the first word I would use to describe the aura of NYC...
essentially, Amsterdam has charm that seems hard to replicate anywhere else. in terms of looks it reminds me a lot of Venice (lots of canals, bridges, etc.), but they are much more open about taboo subjects there (Red Light District anyone?) as I tend to think California is, and then yet it has this old city charm that reminds me of Paris.
the architecture there was amazing as well. not necessarily in terms of ornateness or grandiose size of the buildings, but more in the sense that it was architecture not really seen elsewhere. and since it is built basically on a lagoon some building are leaning, falling, resting on their neighborhoods that it definitely gives a visual to the idea of a "sinking city."
as far as what I "did" in the city... well it wasn't much. I went to a museum here, a museum there, but honestly I spent most of my time simply just walking. it was a nice, sort of leisure vacation (which is not usually, 100% my style). I didn't worry about waking up early to rush and pack all these things into my day (it helped matters a bit that I was there for a week). I woke up when I felt like it, slowly made my way to the train station to head into the city (I was staying with a friend in The Hague). and when I arrived I walked, stopping when I was hungry or wanted to inspect something further, and left for the day when my feet were finally tired. it was almost as if I was back in NYC, only in a different city (not sure if that makes sense to anyone but me...)
personally, one of the best parts of my trip was developing my photography "skills," so to speak. normally I just take pictures of things that catch my eye. but I tried to approach taking my "artistic" photos a little differently this time around. many famous artists do a series of work - one subject over and over again in either different perspectives, lighting, etc. - so I decided to try it too. I had so much fun with these photos that they may be some of my favorites of all of my photos.
all in all, I would definitely make a trip back to this charming city. but maybe where there is a little more sunshine to be had...
Saturday, July 21
just a smidge behind
holy cow. just realized that it's pretty much been almost a year since I have posted anything. lots of good things have happened and hopefully lots of good things to come. in a nutshell - I've taken a few short trips here and there (mostly Florida and a Vegas trip in there somewhere), traveled to Amsterdam for the winter holidays instead of going home, broke my wrist snowboarding, traveled to California for the first time (loved it!), started a new job, been having a blast this summer (and a nice, dark tan to go with it ;) ), trying to get everything in order to hopefully quit everything next year and go backpacking for a year, and finally end with a move to Paris! :)
I'm also trying to combine everything I've got going on for everything I love. this blog about my explorations in NYC, my photography, and trying to slowly carve out a name for myself in terms of event/wedding planning. whew. even I'm exhausted typing all that. fingers crossed that everything comes together soon though!
I promise to start posting again soon. cross my heart. :)
I'm also trying to combine everything I've got going on for everything I love. this blog about my explorations in NYC, my photography, and trying to slowly carve out a name for myself in terms of event/wedding planning. whew. even I'm exhausted typing all that. fingers crossed that everything comes together soon though!
I promise to start posting again soon. cross my heart. :)
Friday, August 26
Brand New New Yorker on Location: Eastern Europe, Moscow
Moscow was a ridiculous two part adventure.
first, the adventure even getting to the city. second, my whirlwind literally THREE HOURS in the city. the damn visa for just this city cost me $300 (so essentially I paid $100 for each hour I was there), but honestly... when is the next time I'm going to get to M-O-S-C-O-W?! it's not exactly the easiest of places to get to, nor is it really that high on people's travel priority list. but since I was already flying on the Russian airline, I decided to make my layover as long as possible in order to be able to get into the city.
I'll start with trying to get to the city first.
as mentioned in the previous post, I arrived at the airport at around 9:30pm for a 2:00am flight. about two hours before the flight was scheduled to leave they finally listed where we were supposed to go to check in. I wait in line like everyone else, get up to one of the ticket agents and hand them my passport, since I didn't have a way of checking in online and printing my boarding pass (pretty sure you can't do that on an international flight anyway). the woman can't find my record in the system. so she legit tosses my passport over to guy at the next counter so he can check me in. he can't find me in the system. he finally explains to me that his supervisor (who was also checking people in - I think they were short staffed at the desks at this time of the night/morning) would check on my situation once he was finished checking people in. no problem - I mean did I really have any other choice but to wait? finally the supervisor finishes checking people in he brings me over to a separate desk to try and figure out the problem. after about a half hour or so he finally figured out what the problem was. apparently the airline company canceled my reservation and never re-booked me. awesome. he was able to re-book me on to the same flights and get me a new confirmation number, but he said unfortunately the flights were full. I thought to myself, "that's nice but I'm still getting on both of these planes even if I have to sit on the pilot's lap." so I go back over to the counter to check in and they couldn't find me again. but then this woman came over to help and after a little bit, was able to get me all checked in and set with both of my boarding passes. as a side note, I noticed earlier that these two other American girls were checking in and had a lot of trouble like I did. coincidence maybe?
second adventure: a total of three hours in Moscow
make it to Moscow a-ok. head out to the main terminal to find an information desk, as I only had pretty crude directions on where to meet up with a friend of a friend who lives in Moscow (we were meeting at a Starbucks no less). the first information girl I spoke with had this attitude about her that how-dare-I-ask-her-for-anything (uh, hello? your job is to provide information, meaning you are going to have to actually talk to people) and she can't believe she is stuck in "the worst job in the world." I was able to finally get her to print out a subway map for me of where the train from the airport would bring me into and where I had to take the subway to. as I'm heading to the train, I find another information booth and this woman was 10x more helpful. she printed me out a map of what street I needed to walk down once I got off the subway, which is what I really needed to begin with anyway. I could have found my way on the subway, I live in in NYC for goodness sake! (although, I will admit it's a lot harder on a subway when all the words are in Russian and they don't even have the same letters as us!) so I get on the train to the subway fine. had a little mix-up on the subway trains, but through sounds, hand gestures, and a general look of confusion on my face I was able to get people to help me find where I needed to go. I get off the subway train and this was the hardest part - trying to find the street I needed. I memorized the Russian word for "english" so I just randomly started walking up to people and saying "angliyski?" and pointing to the spot on the map where I needed to go. no one could help. ugh. finally found a police officer, who, when I asked him "angliyski?," responded with "little." perfect! I could totally work with that. showed him the map and all of a sudden he got really animated and started spouting off in Russian on where I was supposed to go (I'm assuming). I of course had NO idea what he was saying, but he kept pointing to the right so I assumed that was the direction I was supposed to go. and even as I was walking away, he was still talking to me in Russian.
made it to the Starbucks and the friend of friend met me there (he was 17 and let me tell you, it's been a long time since I've been around a 17 year old. they act differently). our first stop was the Red Square, Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral. it was beyond cool. the city as a whole was a little industrial to me. to be honest, I'm not sure how high going back there is on my list. maybe to go to the country of Russia itself. or at least to St. Petersburg. however, I can say that I definitely do not regret going and it was a fun way to end my three week trek through eastern europe!! :)
first, the adventure even getting to the city. second, my whirlwind literally THREE HOURS in the city. the damn visa for just this city cost me $300 (so essentially I paid $100 for each hour I was there), but honestly... when is the next time I'm going to get to M-O-S-C-O-W?! it's not exactly the easiest of places to get to, nor is it really that high on people's travel priority list. but since I was already flying on the Russian airline, I decided to make my layover as long as possible in order to be able to get into the city.
I'll start with trying to get to the city first.
as mentioned in the previous post, I arrived at the airport at around 9:30pm for a 2:00am flight. about two hours before the flight was scheduled to leave they finally listed where we were supposed to go to check in. I wait in line like everyone else, get up to one of the ticket agents and hand them my passport, since I didn't have a way of checking in online and printing my boarding pass (pretty sure you can't do that on an international flight anyway). the woman can't find my record in the system. so she legit tosses my passport over to guy at the next counter so he can check me in. he can't find me in the system. he finally explains to me that his supervisor (who was also checking people in - I think they were short staffed at the desks at this time of the night/morning) would check on my situation once he was finished checking people in. no problem - I mean did I really have any other choice but to wait? finally the supervisor finishes checking people in he brings me over to a separate desk to try and figure out the problem. after about a half hour or so he finally figured out what the problem was. apparently the airline company canceled my reservation and never re-booked me. awesome. he was able to re-book me on to the same flights and get me a new confirmation number, but he said unfortunately the flights were full. I thought to myself, "that's nice but I'm still getting on both of these planes even if I have to sit on the pilot's lap." so I go back over to the counter to check in and they couldn't find me again. but then this woman came over to help and after a little bit, was able to get me all checked in and set with both of my boarding passes. as a side note, I noticed earlier that these two other American girls were checking in and had a lot of trouble like I did. coincidence maybe?
second adventure: a total of three hours in Moscow
make it to Moscow a-ok. head out to the main terminal to find an information desk, as I only had pretty crude directions on where to meet up with a friend of a friend who lives in Moscow (we were meeting at a Starbucks no less). the first information girl I spoke with had this attitude about her that how-dare-I-ask-her-for-anything (uh, hello? your job is to provide information, meaning you are going to have to actually talk to people) and she can't believe she is stuck in "the worst job in the world." I was able to finally get her to print out a subway map for me of where the train from the airport would bring me into and where I had to take the subway to. as I'm heading to the train, I find another information booth and this woman was 10x more helpful. she printed me out a map of what street I needed to walk down once I got off the subway, which is what I really needed to begin with anyway. I could have found my way on the subway, I live in in NYC for goodness sake! (although, I will admit it's a lot harder on a subway when all the words are in Russian and they don't even have the same letters as us!) so I get on the train to the subway fine. had a little mix-up on the subway trains, but through sounds, hand gestures, and a general look of confusion on my face I was able to get people to help me find where I needed to go. I get off the subway train and this was the hardest part - trying to find the street I needed. I memorized the Russian word for "english" so I just randomly started walking up to people and saying "angliyski?" and pointing to the spot on the map where I needed to go. no one could help. ugh. finally found a police officer, who, when I asked him "angliyski?," responded with "little." perfect! I could totally work with that. showed him the map and all of a sudden he got really animated and started spouting off in Russian on where I was supposed to go (I'm assuming). I of course had NO idea what he was saying, but he kept pointing to the right so I assumed that was the direction I was supposed to go. and even as I was walking away, he was still talking to me in Russian.
made it to the Starbucks and the friend of friend met me there (he was 17 and let me tell you, it's been a long time since I've been around a 17 year old. they act differently). our first stop was the Red Square, Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral. it was beyond cool. the city as a whole was a little industrial to me. to be honest, I'm not sure how high going back there is on my list. maybe to go to the country of Russia itself. or at least to St. Petersburg. however, I can say that I definitely do not regret going and it was a fun way to end my three week trek through eastern europe!! :)
(entrance to Red Square)
(can anyone read me what this says? anyone?)
(St. Basil's Cathedral)
(St. Basil's Cathedral)
Monday, August 22
Brand New New Yorker on Location: Eastern Europe, Istanbul
I am going to forewarn you - this post is going to be LONG. but I hope you still read and enjoy it. :) before I can even begin to tell you about the wonderful city of Istanbul, I have to talk about our TWENTY-FOUR hour train ride there. mind you the train wasn't supposed to take 24 hours - it was only supposed to take 20 - but we made so many random stops for god knows what reason that it took an extra four hours! by the way, this was also the "express" train. if this was express, I'd hate to know how long the regular train was...
so the train had a total of three cars. one Romanian car, one Turkish car, and one Bulgarian car. and NO food car. for 24 hours there was no food. luckily, well sort of, Furi Kuri and I woke up late the morning of our train ride and had to end up throwing all of our breakfast stuff in little baggies to take with us (because we did have a 2 1/2 - 3 hour drive from where we were staying to the train station, not to mention we still had to return the rental car) so we had food for the train ride. just had to ration everything out to last us. we did make friends with the guy working on the train and ended up sharing a beer with him and his friend. it helps to talk to people. :) some other interesting factoids about this train ride:
1.) we literally stopped at every border station for them to check our passports. all other trains I've been on they check your passport while the train is still going. and not only did they stop the train, but they stopped it twice. once to check your passport from the country you were leaving and then 15 minutes later for the country you were entering.
2.) I have two stamps in my passport for Bulgaria, even though I have never stepped foot in that country (just like The Netherlands - I was only in the Amsterdam airport for a total of three hours, yet I have a stamp in my passport).
3.) they stopped the train at around 2am to add another car. seriously took about 45min -1 hour to this. unsure why it took so long, but I don't work on trains so I couldn't even begin to give you an educated guess.
4.) they kicked everyone off the train at 5am when we got to the border of Turkey so we could get our visas. we had to go to one window to purchase the visa and then stand in line at another window to get the stamp. not exactly a very efficient system if you ask me. also, you were never sure of how much the visa was going to cost. and you had to pay in your own currency (they didn't take Turkish money for them). the cost depended upon Turkey's relationship with your country at that time - so I will say a thank you to the US Government, this time, for not effing things up with the country of Turkey. because if it cost any more than the $20 I had, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have let me in their country.
we finally made it to Istanbul. my very first impression was that it was similar to Cairo, though much more cosmopolitan. thank goodness we had looked up the address to the hostel from the train station on Furi Kuri's phone and saved the map because otherwise, I have no idea if we would have ever made it to our hostel. first thing we did after checking into our room was change and head out to do some sightseeing. our hostel was literally a 5-10 minute walk from the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia. I cannot even begin to describe what it was like to be in the Hagia Sophia. I mean, it's something I've only ever studied in a text book and then to see it in real life?! the magnitude of the place is unreal. let's just say, the inner art history geek in me was freaking out a little. I had to leave Furi Kuri to explore a little on her own the rest of the afternoon as I didn't have any energy left (I had been sick from the moment I stepped on the train to Istanbul - and believe me, being sick on a rocking train is NOT fun whatsoever).
the next day was absolutely amazing and one of the reasons I also absolutely love traveling with Furi Kuri. we started out the morning going to the Topkapi Palace. let me just tell you - the Turks have EVERYONE beat when it comes to jewels. I mean they had a box on display of lose emeralds. I can't imagine what they were for. unless the little spoiled prince of a sultan decided he was going to play bocce ball with emeralds or something. after the palace we were going to head over to the grand bazaar. on our walk there we heard someone say "girls, girls," which at this point we had learned to ignore since it usually just meant someone was just trying to sell you something. but after we kept on walking we heard the person say "I'm not trying to sell you anything." at this point we actually turned around to see that the gentleman that was talking to us had a Florida Gators shirt on! turns out he was from Turkey, his wife was from South Carolina and they were currently living in Sarasota. he had his own private carpet selling and making business (plus a few hotels and other business ventures as well). we were asking him for tips on what to look for when buying a Turkish rug, so he asked if we would like to go to his private building and have his general manager explain everything to us (usually only reserved for clients who buy wholesale). our answer? sure! so we headed over to the building (which looked like an art museum inside) and the general manager and his brother pulled out rug after rug after rug to show us the differences and things to look for to make it authentic. now I wasn't really looking to buy a Turkish rug (mainly because I didn't think I could afford it), but I saw one there that I just HAD to have. it literally was perfect. I threw my credit card at him and told him to charge it before I changed my mind. even though it was one of the largest purchases I've ever made in my life, I do not regret it one bit. I love that rug! Furi Kuri took a little longer in her search to find the perfect rug. she won't buy anything unless she absolutely loves it (something I admire about her). in the meantime, they bought us lunch from a place that only caters to businesses and as someone walking in off the street you cannot order anything from them. after a little while longer there we left to drop off my rug back at the hostel and then continue to our original destination - the grand bazaar.
somehow on our second walk to the grand bazaar we found another small street bazaar. stopped into this linen and towel store and started talking to the guy about prices and such. somewhere along our trip we heard that we should say we are from Canada as people tend to jack up prices for Americans (which wouldn't surprise me one bit). so when the guy at the store asked us where we from we told him Canada. all of a sudden his face lit up and he explained to us that the owner of the store, Jennifer (who was sitting just a few feet away talking to someone), was also from Canada! shit. we tried to hurry up and leave, but the guy kept talking so much that we didn't get to leave before Jennifer came over. he was so excited to tell her that we were from Canada as well. and then of course she was so excited to have someone from her home country in her store. here is how the conversation went:
Jennifer: "where are you from?!"
me: "...Toronto..."
Jennifer: "omg! I'm from [insert name of small Canadian town here]"
me: "omg no way! that's crazy!" (meanwhile of course I had absolutely NO idea where she was talking about)
we actually ended up having a good 1-2 hour conversation with her about how she got started in the business, her other business ventures, how everything in the store was organic and made right on small farms in Turkey. she even had a video on her camera that she showed us of this 80 year old spinning silk from this huge vat of silk worms onto a loom. it was amazing to watch. another one of her business ventures was in quartz and ceramics. I mentioned that I was looking for a gift for my mother, so she personally walked us down to her other store and told the guy there to explain the differences between quartz and ceramic to us. after getting a few souvenirs, the guy asked us if we would just like to walk down to another store that had all the quartz stuff in it. sure! let me tell you, it was amazing!! once I save up enough pennies I'm definitely going back to get my dad something! we got to talking to the guy and asked him for restaurant recommendations - which he said that there were a lot of good places along the water by the bridge and that actually him and his friends were going there to have dinner, drinks and dancing. we promised to try and stop by after he got off work, but if we weren't there then not to wait for us.
we finally made it off that street and went to this textile store that Furi Kuri had been drooling over our entire trip. of course spent another few hours there going through hundreds and hundreds of squares in all shapes and sizes of the most colorful textiles you've ever seen from every "stan" country you can think of. finally we were starting to get hungry, so the shop keeper suggested a place to us that was just up the road. we ended up making friends with our waiter there, who felt so bad that Furi Kuri didn't like the meal he suggested to her that he brought us free alcohol. next thing you know, he was telling us that one of the other waiters wanted us to join him for shisha and backgammon (HUGE in the country of Turkey by the way). next thing you know, it was three o'clock in the morning and we had just finished smoking way too much shisha, playing countless games of backgammon and having the most delicious popcorn I've ever tasted. oh, what a night. (I feel like I should bust out in Frankie Valli's "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night) )
the next day we actually managed to get up early (since it was our last day in the city, we wanted to take in everything that we could) and make our way down to the water to catch a ferry over to the Asia side of Istanbul. we were bad tourists in that we didn't really explore the area too much, we mainly just went over there to be able to say we went to Asia. our next goal was to find the modern art museum and somehow along the way we managed to find the spice bazaar. wasn't 100% what I was expected, but still fun to walk through (minus of course everyone shouting at you "girls! girls! come look in my shop! I have many, many things for you!"). we searched forever and ever for this museum and ended up in what I am pretty sure was a place they do NOT put in the guide books. we kept seeing a sign for this cafe, so we decided to stop in and ask them where the musuem was and ended up stumbling upon one of the best views of Istanbul. (I was totally right by the way in that we were completely on the wrong side of the city for the museum - just want to point that out.) so we stayed there and had lunch and just soaked up the views before I unfortunately had to go back to the hostel and pack since the airport shuttle was leaving at 8:30 that night (even though my plane didn't leave until 2am - yeah, that was a fun wait in the airport). on our walk back to the hostel we finally made it to the grand bazaar. maybe because we didn't have much time or maybe because we had already gotten all of our gifts, but I wasn't 100% impressed with it. don't get me wrong - it definitely was cool - but actually a little more modern than I was expecting.
and even though I hated to leave this city because it was my favorite of the trip, unfortunately the time had come. :(
so the train had a total of three cars. one Romanian car, one Turkish car, and one Bulgarian car. and NO food car. for 24 hours there was no food. luckily, well sort of, Furi Kuri and I woke up late the morning of our train ride and had to end up throwing all of our breakfast stuff in little baggies to take with us (because we did have a 2 1/2 - 3 hour drive from where we were staying to the train station, not to mention we still had to return the rental car) so we had food for the train ride. just had to ration everything out to last us. we did make friends with the guy working on the train and ended up sharing a beer with him and his friend. it helps to talk to people. :) some other interesting factoids about this train ride:
1.) we literally stopped at every border station for them to check our passports. all other trains I've been on they check your passport while the train is still going. and not only did they stop the train, but they stopped it twice. once to check your passport from the country you were leaving and then 15 minutes later for the country you were entering.
2.) I have two stamps in my passport for Bulgaria, even though I have never stepped foot in that country (just like The Netherlands - I was only in the Amsterdam airport for a total of three hours, yet I have a stamp in my passport).
3.) they stopped the train at around 2am to add another car. seriously took about 45min -1 hour to this. unsure why it took so long, but I don't work on trains so I couldn't even begin to give you an educated guess.
4.) they kicked everyone off the train at 5am when we got to the border of Turkey so we could get our visas. we had to go to one window to purchase the visa and then stand in line at another window to get the stamp. not exactly a very efficient system if you ask me. also, you were never sure of how much the visa was going to cost. and you had to pay in your own currency (they didn't take Turkish money for them). the cost depended upon Turkey's relationship with your country at that time - so I will say a thank you to the US Government, this time, for not effing things up with the country of Turkey. because if it cost any more than the $20 I had, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have let me in their country.
we finally made it to Istanbul. my very first impression was that it was similar to Cairo, though much more cosmopolitan. thank goodness we had looked up the address to the hostel from the train station on Furi Kuri's phone and saved the map because otherwise, I have no idea if we would have ever made it to our hostel. first thing we did after checking into our room was change and head out to do some sightseeing. our hostel was literally a 5-10 minute walk from the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia. I cannot even begin to describe what it was like to be in the Hagia Sophia. I mean, it's something I've only ever studied in a text book and then to see it in real life?! the magnitude of the place is unreal. let's just say, the inner art history geek in me was freaking out a little. I had to leave Furi Kuri to explore a little on her own the rest of the afternoon as I didn't have any energy left (I had been sick from the moment I stepped on the train to Istanbul - and believe me, being sick on a rocking train is NOT fun whatsoever).
(inside ceiling of the Blue Mosque)
(inside ceiling of the Hagia Sophia)
the next day was absolutely amazing and one of the reasons I also absolutely love traveling with Furi Kuri. we started out the morning going to the Topkapi Palace. let me just tell you - the Turks have EVERYONE beat when it comes to jewels. I mean they had a box on display of lose emeralds. I can't imagine what they were for. unless the little spoiled prince of a sultan decided he was going to play bocce ball with emeralds or something. after the palace we were going to head over to the grand bazaar. on our walk there we heard someone say "girls, girls," which at this point we had learned to ignore since it usually just meant someone was just trying to sell you something. but after we kept on walking we heard the person say "I'm not trying to sell you anything." at this point we actually turned around to see that the gentleman that was talking to us had a Florida Gators shirt on! turns out he was from Turkey, his wife was from South Carolina and they were currently living in Sarasota. he had his own private carpet selling and making business (plus a few hotels and other business ventures as well). we were asking him for tips on what to look for when buying a Turkish rug, so he asked if we would like to go to his private building and have his general manager explain everything to us (usually only reserved for clients who buy wholesale). our answer? sure! so we headed over to the building (which looked like an art museum inside) and the general manager and his brother pulled out rug after rug after rug to show us the differences and things to look for to make it authentic. now I wasn't really looking to buy a Turkish rug (mainly because I didn't think I could afford it), but I saw one there that I just HAD to have. it literally was perfect. I threw my credit card at him and told him to charge it before I changed my mind. even though it was one of the largest purchases I've ever made in my life, I do not regret it one bit. I love that rug! Furi Kuri took a little longer in her search to find the perfect rug. she won't buy anything unless she absolutely loves it (something I admire about her). in the meantime, they bought us lunch from a place that only caters to businesses and as someone walking in off the street you cannot order anything from them. after a little while longer there we left to drop off my rug back at the hostel and then continue to our original destination - the grand bazaar.
somehow on our second walk to the grand bazaar we found another small street bazaar. stopped into this linen and towel store and started talking to the guy about prices and such. somewhere along our trip we heard that we should say we are from Canada as people tend to jack up prices for Americans (which wouldn't surprise me one bit). so when the guy at the store asked us where we from we told him Canada. all of a sudden his face lit up and he explained to us that the owner of the store, Jennifer (who was sitting just a few feet away talking to someone), was also from Canada! shit. we tried to hurry up and leave, but the guy kept talking so much that we didn't get to leave before Jennifer came over. he was so excited to tell her that we were from Canada as well. and then of course she was so excited to have someone from her home country in her store. here is how the conversation went:
Jennifer: "where are you from?!"
me: "...Toronto..."
Jennifer: "omg! I'm from [insert name of small Canadian town here]"
me: "omg no way! that's crazy!" (meanwhile of course I had absolutely NO idea where she was talking about)
we actually ended up having a good 1-2 hour conversation with her about how she got started in the business, her other business ventures, how everything in the store was organic and made right on small farms in Turkey. she even had a video on her camera that she showed us of this 80 year old spinning silk from this huge vat of silk worms onto a loom. it was amazing to watch. another one of her business ventures was in quartz and ceramics. I mentioned that I was looking for a gift for my mother, so she personally walked us down to her other store and told the guy there to explain the differences between quartz and ceramic to us. after getting a few souvenirs, the guy asked us if we would just like to walk down to another store that had all the quartz stuff in it. sure! let me tell you, it was amazing!! once I save up enough pennies I'm definitely going back to get my dad something! we got to talking to the guy and asked him for restaurant recommendations - which he said that there were a lot of good places along the water by the bridge and that actually him and his friends were going there to have dinner, drinks and dancing. we promised to try and stop by after he got off work, but if we weren't there then not to wait for us.
(finished silk worm cocoon)
we finally made it off that street and went to this textile store that Furi Kuri had been drooling over our entire trip. of course spent another few hours there going through hundreds and hundreds of squares in all shapes and sizes of the most colorful textiles you've ever seen from every "stan" country you can think of. finally we were starting to get hungry, so the shop keeper suggested a place to us that was just up the road. we ended up making friends with our waiter there, who felt so bad that Furi Kuri didn't like the meal he suggested to her that he brought us free alcohol. next thing you know, he was telling us that one of the other waiters wanted us to join him for shisha and backgammon (HUGE in the country of Turkey by the way). next thing you know, it was three o'clock in the morning and we had just finished smoking way too much shisha, playing countless games of backgammon and having the most delicious popcorn I've ever tasted. oh, what a night. (I feel like I should bust out in Frankie Valli's "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night) )
(shisha "house" we were at)
the next day we actually managed to get up early (since it was our last day in the city, we wanted to take in everything that we could) and make our way down to the water to catch a ferry over to the Asia side of Istanbul. we were bad tourists in that we didn't really explore the area too much, we mainly just went over there to be able to say we went to Asia. our next goal was to find the modern art museum and somehow along the way we managed to find the spice bazaar. wasn't 100% what I was expected, but still fun to walk through (minus of course everyone shouting at you "girls! girls! come look in my shop! I have many, many things for you!"). we searched forever and ever for this museum and ended up in what I am pretty sure was a place they do NOT put in the guide books. we kept seeing a sign for this cafe, so we decided to stop in and ask them where the musuem was and ended up stumbling upon one of the best views of Istanbul. (I was totally right by the way in that we were completely on the wrong side of the city for the museum - just want to point that out.) so we stayed there and had lunch and just soaked up the views before I unfortunately had to go back to the hostel and pack since the airport shuttle was leaving at 8:30 that night (even though my plane didn't leave until 2am - yeah, that was a fun wait in the airport). on our walk back to the hostel we finally made it to the grand bazaar. maybe because we didn't have much time or maybe because we had already gotten all of our gifts, but I wasn't 100% impressed with it. don't get me wrong - it definitely was cool - but actually a little more modern than I was expecting.
(view of the city coming back from the Asia side)
(our lunch time view)
(some sweets at the bazaar)
(man trying to sell me sweets at the bazaar)
(anyone fancy a hat?)
(some of the spices at the spice market)
(some gorgeous lamps I saw at the bazaar)
(deciding what pieces to put into a Turkish rug)
(many of the carpet stores literally had stacks upon stacks of rugs)
and even though I hated to leave this city because it was my favorite of the trip, unfortunately the time had come. :(
Friday, August 19
Brand New New Yorker on Location: Eastern Europe, Romania
before I can even begin to talk about our time in Romania, I need to discuss the train ride there. it was my first time ever taking an overnight train and it was a rather interesting experience to say the least. and since Furi Kuri and I are completely horrible about waiting until the last minute to do things, we ended up in a six person sleeper car instead of the two person that we wanted. so there we were with this old Romanian couple who didn't speak a lick of English, a girl that had just graduated high school and had been traveling for months (I commend her - I couldn't even do three weeks by myself!), and an asian kid who didn't speak to anyone the whole trip. so in order to fit six people sleeping in one of those Harry Potter like train cars this is how we had to set everything up - the very top bunks were already laid out (all comforters and pillows were up there & that's also where we had to store all the luggage), the "seats" we were sitting on were actually the bottom bunks, and then the back rests we were leaning on flipped up to become the middle bunks. it was a very tight squeeze once all of the beds were set up. not only that, but sleeping on a moving train was also an interesting experience as well.
and, as stated before, Furi Kuri and I can never have a trip without an adventure. so here is our story in Romania:
- we arrived on a Tuesday at noon. decided it would be best to buy our train ticket to Istanbul for the next evening while we were already at the station (see mom, sometimes I think ahead). go to the ticket counter only to discover that there is only ONE train that leaves from Bucharest to Istanbul - and it leaves at noon every day. awesome. that meant that we had a total of TWENTY-FOUR hours in the country.
- so we bought the tickets and headed to the bus stop to go up to the airport where we would pick up the car we rented (which turned out to be an almost expensive, epic fail). got into a fight with the guy who gets on the bus to check your ticket. tried to tell us we owed a 50LIE (their money) fine. finally after a bit of arguing the man finely did what he should have done in the first place - unlocked the machines so we could validate the tickets we had for two people (instead of the one it was accidentally validated for).
- got the rental car (with GPS) no problem - finally something went right.
- then the goal was to find the bed & breakfast place we were supposed to be staying in. according to their directions online, they should have only been about an hour, maybe hour and a half, outside the city of Bucharest. three hours later we were still driving with no sign of the B&B. and mind you the directions we were following had statements like "go over the wooden bridge" and "take a left at the second rock."
**side note: driving through this country was an obstacle course!! between the crazy drivers, the horse pulled carts sharing the highway, having to stop in the middle of the highway for the pedestrian crosswalks they had set, dodging stray dogs, and dealing with the most construction I've ever seen... let's just say I had white knuckles the entire time I was driving (Furi Kuri didn't dare get behind the wheel, as she isn't the greatest driver to begin with and probably would have had a heart attack trying to navigate this country).
- we decided to ditch the B&B plans and turn around to drive back to Bran Castle. the guide book said it closed at 7:00pm, so we figured we had plenty of time...
- arrive at 6:15pm to have this woman inform us that the castle actually closes at 6:00pm (thanks a lot guide book), but we decided to head up to the castle anyway just to see for ourselves. it did indeed close at 6:00pm, however it didn't even matter because the last entry time was 4:30pm. :( I couldn't believe it. my ENTIRE reason for even going to this country in the first place didn't happen. to say I was disappointed would be an understatement.
(Bran Castle
since our entire reason for going to this country didn't happen and we had no place to stay that night, we decided to stop for a little dinner and figure out our next moves. we ate at this little outdoor restaurant in the town of Bran (which I swear was a population of about 300 people, minus the tourists) and this group of three couples sat down at the table next to us. it was one of those situations where they ask to take your picture and then you start talking and next thing you know they were inviting us to stay at the B&B they were staying in just up the road. our obvious answer: sure!
it was the cutest little place! cheaper than where we were originally going to stay and included a nice warm, home cooked breakfast. spent the evening chatting with the couples (all from Israel and beyond totally Jewish), taking shots with them and making friends with the St. Bernard - Altos - that lived there (I was excited because I had never seen a St. Bernard in real life). we even got to meet their bike tour guide - Arnold. not necessarily a "Romanian" name in my opinion, but he did have that Draculaesque "I vant to drink your blood" accent. :)
so even though the train was almost an epic fail, I did end up having a good time. and at least now it's a story. :)
(inside our train car)
- so we bought the tickets and headed to the bus stop to go up to the airport where we would pick up the car we rented (which turned out to be an almost expensive, epic fail). got into a fight with the guy who gets on the bus to check your ticket. tried to tell us we owed a 50LIE (their money) fine. finally after a bit of arguing the man finely did what he should have done in the first place - unlocked the machines so we could validate the tickets we had for two people (instead of the one it was accidentally validated for).
- got the rental car (with GPS) no problem - finally something went right.
- then the goal was to find the bed & breakfast place we were supposed to be staying in. according to their directions online, they should have only been about an hour, maybe hour and a half, outside the city of Bucharest. three hours later we were still driving with no sign of the B&B. and mind you the directions we were following had statements like "go over the wooden bridge" and "take a left at the second rock."
**side note: driving through this country was an obstacle course!! between the crazy drivers, the horse pulled carts sharing the highway, having to stop in the middle of the highway for the pedestrian crosswalks they had set, dodging stray dogs, and dealing with the most construction I've ever seen... let's just say I had white knuckles the entire time I was driving (Furi Kuri didn't dare get behind the wheel, as she isn't the greatest driver to begin with and probably would have had a heart attack trying to navigate this country).
- we decided to ditch the B&B plans and turn around to drive back to Bran Castle. the guide book said it closed at 7:00pm, so we figured we had plenty of time...
- arrive at 6:15pm to have this woman inform us that the castle actually closes at 6:00pm (thanks a lot guide book), but we decided to head up to the castle anyway just to see for ourselves. it did indeed close at 6:00pm, however it didn't even matter because the last entry time was 4:30pm. :( I couldn't believe it. my ENTIRE reason for even going to this country in the first place didn't happen. to say I was disappointed would be an understatement.
(the entrance into the castle grounds - looking up at the castle)
("Dracula's Castle" that I didn't get to see :( )
since our entire reason for going to this country didn't happen and we had no place to stay that night, we decided to stop for a little dinner and figure out our next moves. we ate at this little outdoor restaurant in the town of Bran (which I swear was a population of about 300 people, minus the tourists) and this group of three couples sat down at the table next to us. it was one of those situations where they ask to take your picture and then you start talking and next thing you know they were inviting us to stay at the B&B they were staying in just up the road. our obvious answer: sure!
it was the cutest little place! cheaper than where we were originally going to stay and included a nice warm, home cooked breakfast. spent the evening chatting with the couples (all from Israel and beyond totally Jewish), taking shots with them and making friends with the St. Bernard - Altos - that lived there (I was excited because I had never seen a St. Bernard in real life). we even got to meet their bike tour guide - Arnold. not necessarily a "Romanian" name in my opinion, but he did have that Draculaesque "I vant to drink your blood" accent. :)
so even though the train was almost an epic fail, I did end up having a good time. and at least now it's a story. :)
Monday, August 15
Brand New New Yorker on Location: Eastern Europe, Budapest
I'll say it. we were officially the worst tourists ever in Budapest. first thing we did was one of those hop on, hop off bus tours to get an idea of the layout of the city. once we just rode around the whole thing once, we would pick the spots we wanted to go back and see, then hop back on the bus and go. yeah... the hopping back on the bus thing never happened. maybe it's because we were exhausted from traveling the day before and our sort of scary evening trying to find the hostel.
I've traveled a fair amount in my life and have stayed in some pretty interesting places. but the hostel we stayed in in this city, was by far the sketchiest place I've ever been. ever. don't get me wrong though - I loved the city and the people there were some of the nicest people I've met, but the actual hostel itself and the area surrounding it... whole 'nother story! (don't be upset mom, I made it home safe and sound.) the area was very, I mean very, deserted at night and there was barely even a sign for the hostel. we initially walk passed it the first round of trying to find it and when I told Furi Kuri that we needed to go back I thought she was about to take my head off! finally we found it, with this tiny little flyer posted on the window. they had to buzz you in and when you got in the main door it looked like you stepped into someone's garage. not even kidding. then it was into this beyond ridiculously rundown courtyard and up a flight of steps. once inside the hostel though, it was cozy and the people were very hospitable (the guy working at the hostel was Australian and oh so cute (especially with that accent), which may be the reason why I wasn't so sketched out anymore. who knows).
the idea of time kind of escapes me in this city, but I can tell you that we spent almost an entire afternoon sitting outside at a restaurant while waiting for the rain to stop drinking pitchers of mojitos and making friends with our artist waitress. now what mojitos and tapas have to do with traditional Hungarian culture, I couldn't tell you. but it was an amazing afternoon. I believe this also might have been the day that we did some aimless wandering and happened upon a really cool outdoor art installation, which was next to an actual castle we decided to take a peek into, and then stopped at what we thought was going to be an amazing outdoor concert of euro-hillbilly music but ended up with a bald man with a beer belly playing the flute (not even joking), then finally ended up spending the evening at the Turkish baths.
apparently we lost track of time so much that we ended up seeing the sun rise over the city twice (this is supposed to be a vacation right? way too many sunrises for a vacation) - which of course both were the result of nights out dancing and drinking. and speaking of drinking... Budapest has the best drunk food. ever. it's called langos. it's amazingness in your mouth. seriously. now I will admit that the first time I tried it, I wasn't a fan. but the second time... oh, the second time. first night out was with people from the hostel (cute Australian included) and we ended up going to see the hostel owner's friend who was playing in a band in an underground bar. it was a chill place and the music was really good and even though it wasn't really a dance party, we turned it into one. randomly made our way over to another bar, complete with a roof deck, which stayed open until who knows what time in the morning which is how we ended up seeing the sun rise. the next night (well day too actually) we ended up at this party for a guerrilla music station that was only in business for a month and then threw a huge "going out of business" celebration. we went with our new friend T-Bone who part of this awesome music group - Dr. Relax. as a result of going to this party, we also missed our train to Romania. oops.
however, the best part of this whole city was when we went... wait for it... CAVING!!! we had to meet our guide at a bus stop, take a bus, walk, then another bus to who knows where outside the city. got to wear these gorgeous zip-up jumpsuit type things and the outfit came complete with a helmet and head lamp. sexy, let me tell you. after a few instructions, down into the caves we climbed. I've never received so many bruises before - on my legs, arms, shoulders, back, head - but it was totally and completely worth it. we had to army crawl through spaces that my ass barely fit through, squeeze through another space they called the "wedgie" (and for good reason), crawl like a spider monkey up rocks, slide on our butts through tunnels, and probably everything else in between that I can't think of at the moment. our guide even had all of us turn off our helmet lights at one point to play a game of "telephone" in which we had to line up single file and give directions to the person directly behind us on where to walk in the completely-pitch-black-can't-even-see-your-hand-right-in-front-of-your-face cave. by the time we finished this little game, it felt like we had gone a hundred yards. of course, when we all turned our lights back on we had maybe gone about 10 feet. awesome.
we did unfortunately have to leave this amazing city, but it was on to Romania and the land of Dracula - which I cannot even begin to describe how I excited I was about it! I even took a course in college called the Slavic Vampire - but don't categorize me as one of those squealing Twilight fans! actual vampires (as real or non-real as they might be) are a bit different than Edward Cullen & Co. (I did read the books, however. don't judge. but I don't own the movies. does that make it better?)
(something famous in Budapest)
I've traveled a fair amount in my life and have stayed in some pretty interesting places. but the hostel we stayed in in this city, was by far the sketchiest place I've ever been. ever. don't get me wrong though - I loved the city and the people there were some of the nicest people I've met, but the actual hostel itself and the area surrounding it... whole 'nother story! (don't be upset mom, I made it home safe and sound.) the area was very, I mean very, deserted at night and there was barely even a sign for the hostel. we initially walk passed it the first round of trying to find it and when I told Furi Kuri that we needed to go back I thought she was about to take my head off! finally we found it, with this tiny little flyer posted on the window. they had to buzz you in and when you got in the main door it looked like you stepped into someone's garage. not even kidding. then it was into this beyond ridiculously rundown courtyard and up a flight of steps. once inside the hostel though, it was cozy and the people were very hospitable (the guy working at the hostel was Australian and oh so cute (especially with that accent), which may be the reason why I wasn't so sketched out anymore. who knows).
[overlooking the whole city of Budapest (I don't have a picture of the hostel, because it was just too sketch to photograph)]
the idea of time kind of escapes me in this city, but I can tell you that we spent almost an entire afternoon sitting outside at a restaurant while waiting for the rain to stop drinking pitchers of mojitos and making friends with our artist waitress. now what mojitos and tapas have to do with traditional Hungarian culture, I couldn't tell you. but it was an amazing afternoon. I believe this also might have been the day that we did some aimless wandering and happened upon a really cool outdoor art installation, which was next to an actual castle we decided to take a peek into, and then stopped at what we thought was going to be an amazing outdoor concert of euro-hillbilly music but ended up with a bald man with a beer belly playing the flute (not even joking), then finally ended up spending the evening at the Turkish baths.
("art" in front of the castle)
(the outside pool at the Turkish bath)
apparently we lost track of time so much that we ended up seeing the sun rise over the city twice (this is supposed to be a vacation right? way too many sunrises for a vacation) - which of course both were the result of nights out dancing and drinking. and speaking of drinking... Budapest has the best drunk food. ever. it's called langos. it's amazingness in your mouth. seriously. now I will admit that the first time I tried it, I wasn't a fan. but the second time... oh, the second time. first night out was with people from the hostel (cute Australian included) and we ended up going to see the hostel owner's friend who was playing in a band in an underground bar. it was a chill place and the music was really good and even though it wasn't really a dance party, we turned it into one. randomly made our way over to another bar, complete with a roof deck, which stayed open until who knows what time in the morning which is how we ended up seeing the sun rise. the next night (well day too actually) we ended up at this party for a guerrilla music station that was only in business for a month and then threw a huge "going out of business" celebration. we went with our new friend T-Bone who part of this awesome music group - Dr. Relax. as a result of going to this party, we also missed our train to Romania. oops.
(the sun rising over the city)
(one of the worst bands ever that was playing at the radio station party)
however, the best part of this whole city was when we went... wait for it... CAVING!!! we had to meet our guide at a bus stop, take a bus, walk, then another bus to who knows where outside the city. got to wear these gorgeous zip-up jumpsuit type things and the outfit came complete with a helmet and head lamp. sexy, let me tell you. after a few instructions, down into the caves we climbed. I've never received so many bruises before - on my legs, arms, shoulders, back, head - but it was totally and completely worth it. we had to army crawl through spaces that my ass barely fit through, squeeze through another space they called the "wedgie" (and for good reason), crawl like a spider monkey up rocks, slide on our butts through tunnels, and probably everything else in between that I can't think of at the moment. our guide even had all of us turn off our helmet lights at one point to play a game of "telephone" in which we had to line up single file and give directions to the person directly behind us on where to walk in the completely-pitch-black-can't-even-see-your-hand-right-in-front-of-your-face cave. by the time we finished this little game, it felt like we had gone a hundred yards. of course, when we all turned our lights back on we had maybe gone about 10 feet. awesome.
(one of the tiny, tiny spaces we had to crawl through)
we did unfortunately have to leave this amazing city, but it was on to Romania and the land of Dracula - which I cannot even begin to describe how I excited I was about it! I even took a course in college called the Slavic Vampire - but don't categorize me as one of those squealing Twilight fans! actual vampires (as real or non-real as they might be) are a bit different than Edward Cullen & Co. (I did read the books, however. don't judge. but I don't own the movies. does that make it better?)
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